For more than a decade, Canon has brought industry-leading lens optics and image processing expertise to the professional market with the XL Series camcorders. In that time, leading videographers have come to rely on the superior image quality and ultimate creative control available to them through the XL Series' features and open architecture system.

Building on the success of a decade of the XL Series and real world feedback, Canon has brought even more improvements in the XL H1S. Together they further raise the level of control and capability available to the most demanding users.

Lens-
Development of the zoom operation has resulted in increased speed and
a more comfortable shape of the zoom control makes smooth,
accurate movements easier. Manual focusing during zooming is now
possible in auto focusing mode, allowing the focus to be adjusted
during a zoom. An iris ring has been added, to improve the operation of
the lens with the focus, zoom and iris rings conveniently adjacent for maximum control.

Customization Options-
To provide a higher level of image control, the XL H1S offers Gain
settings selectable in 0.5dB increments from 0 to +18dB for greater fine
tuning of the picture. Additionally, we've extended the upper and lower
limits of the color temperature setting for White Balance, so the user can
find just the right setting in a wider variety of lighting situations. The focus
assist (peaking) frequency level and gain is now adjustable for even
greater control over image setup parameters and a host of custom
functions are now supported including: Zoom speed switching between high-, normal- and low-speeds, zoom ring and focus ring response switching to meet the specific taste and needs of the shooter and even the
directionality of the focus/zoom ring is now selectable.

Terminals-
To the already sophisticated, industry-standard connections and terminals of the XL Series, the XL H1S has added a connector for both black and white viewfinder and external monitor output signals. This makes it easier than ever to check manual focus settings or have crew or clients view the subject image as a shot is being composed or recorded. We've also added simultaneous RCA and BNC video output capability to the
XL H1S. All of these outputs are 'live' all of the time, fitting into any monitoring system.

Audio-

HD-SDI with embedded audio and Time Code is a new feature of the
XL H1S. In manual mode an audio limiter has been added to prevent
distortion. You may now use the supplied microphone and the 2-channel
XLR inputs simultaneously for greater flexibility in recording audio. In
addition, the sensitivity of the XLR line has been increased with manual
input operation and a separate XLR sensitivity setting. Line output level
switching has also been included.

Monitoring-
When using a compatible external Hard Disk Drive, the remaining memory is now displayed in the EV, so there is no need to guess the recording time left on the HDD during a shoot.

Operation-
Many operational features have been enhanced on the XL H1S, to provide
even greater ease of use in the field. A convenient push button has been
added for the Auto Exposure setting. The default shutter speed has
been changed from 1/30 to 1/60, delivering smoother video. The layout of the control dial has been changed, to place the "M" (manual) mode adjacent to OFF for added convenience. To further ease operation, the XL H1S has been designed to avoid erroneous operation of various functions including the AE shift dial, BARS/FADE control, RecReview and End Search. Anti-slip protuberances have been added onto the grip to improve camera handling. The tripod base plate can be changed to allow the use of large screw tripods. Both the normal and large base plates are included.